Thread by @shadihamid

America's preeminent Islamic scholar—Sheikh Hamza Yusuf—has said problematic things before, but this might be the most morally abhorrent thing he's said yet. That he's still hailed in our community is, well, not good. Hopefully it will begin to change

Hamza Yusuf unapologetically—and rather coarsely— blames Syrians for their own suffering at the hands of a brutal regime: "If you humiliate a ruler, God will humiliate you"

The most disgusting thing Hamza Yusuf says in the clip is this: "I am no fan of the rulers [in Syria], I was no fan of Saddam but now we see the wisdom of why these people were in those places"

So, in short: one of the American Muslim community's spiritual leaders and most respected religious authorities says that there is "wisdom" in Assad and Saddam ruling over their countries. Yes, wisdom is the word he used

What's revolting is that Hamza Yusuf isn't just offering a political opinion. He actually uses the Prophet Mohamed's words to justify Bashar al-Assad's rule. If you want an example of the corruption of religion for narrow, repugnant political ends, then this is a pretty good one

The good sheikh also makes a pretty elementary "mistake" for such a learned scholar. He takes a hadith (Prophetic saying) out of its context and applies it to a completely different—and unrecognizable—political context 14 centuries later and assumes his audience won't know better

This is the danger of someone who has a long history of morally abhorrent political opinions claiming spiritual authority and leadership for and within a community. To put it more simply: Hamza Yusuf has become an embarrassment to the American Muslim community

There seems to be an effort to take down any video of Hamza Yusuf’s awful comments, so the link above no longer works

You can find it here instead: